Portrait Firenze, Florence

The Ferragamo family’s Lungarno Collection expanded its reign over Florence’s best boutique lodgings this May, opening Portrait Firenze at the foot of the storied Ponte Vecchio, just up the Arno River from their fashion empire’s headquarters in the 13th-century Palazzo Spini Feroni. The sister property to the capital city’s Portrait Roma, the new hotel contains 34 residential-feeling suites over six floors, most with river views, several with private terraces and all decorated by Michele Bönan, the highly discriminating Florence-based architect and designer behind the collection’s hotels and yachts. From $650/night; portraitfirenze.com

Portrait Firenze, Florence

For Portrait Firenze, Bönan imagined the suites, riverfront restaurant, and loungelike lobby as pieces of an aristocratic home that recall the glamour of Florence in the 1950s. Combining influences both classic and contemporary, the largely black, white, and gray scheme abounds with velvet—upholstered couches and beds, midcentury-modern pieces from Italian furnituremaker Tosconova, sparkling white Carrara marble and honey-hued alabaster, and brushed- and polished-brass details. Bönan’s tightly tailored aesthetic matches Portrait’s commitment to bespoke service, in which no request is too big and anything—with enough notice—can be arranged.

The Temple Hotel, Beijing

In a city (and, indeed, a country, if not an entire continent) known for its big-brand megahotels, Beijing’s Temple Hotel stands apart—and not just because it’s tucked away down a narrow alley, near but hidden from the tourist crowds of the Forbidden City. What really makes this new-meets-old marvel special is its provenance: An 18th-century Qing Dynasty temple, the *pagado-*style building had been all but lost to time until Belgian entrepreneur Juan van Wassenhove happened upon its ruins in 2005. Several years and 200 truckloads of rubble later, the temple emerged anew as an artfully attired eight-room hotel that elegantly mixes ancient and contemporary. From $325/night; thetemplehotel.com

The Temple Hotel, Beijing

The winner of the 2012 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Award for Cultural Heritage Conservation, the Temple Hotel seamlessly blends centuries-old tiles, wood-beamed ceilings, and other architectural elements in the former monks’ quarters (additional suites occupy an adjoining building from the 1960s) with a smattering of mid-20th-century furnishings and 21st-century art. Don’t miss the contemporary European restaurant here, run by a former manager of Manhattan’s legendary, Michelin-starred Daniel.

The Ludlow, New York City

Fresh off the success of his nearly year-old Marlton hotel, near New York City’s Washington Square, Sean MacPherson—the hotelier-designer behind such quintessentially downtown stays as the Bowery, the Jane, and the Maritime—has partnered with developers Ira Drukier and Richard Born (of Soho’s Mercer and Tribeca’s Greenwich hotels) to open the Ludlow on the Lower East Side street of the same name. With an eye toward the neighborhood’s gritty past, as well as its current cultural and high-fashion cachet, the owners aimed to create a rough-luxe stay that feels quirky but comfortable and bohemian but sophisticated. From $295/night; ludlowhotel.com

Hotel Praktik Bakery, Barcelona

Many a haute hotel these days has a signature scent that defines it: a specially concocted room fragrance from an internationally renowned “nose,” say, or a mix of earthy essential oils. At Barcelona’s new Hotel Praktik Bakery, that telltale aroma is the smell of freshly made baguettes. That’s because a branch of the city’s beloved Balaurd bakery holds pride of place in the hotel’s metal-trussed, brick-columned lobby, filling it with the enticing perfume of artisanal breads and pastries of all kinds. From $150/night; hotelpraktikbakery.com

Idle Rocks, Cornwall

For a hotel owned and operated by race-car impresario and former Aston Martin chairman David Richards and his wife, Karen, the year-old Idle Rocks is surprisingly serene, nestled in a quiet corner of Cornwall, in England’s further southeast stretches. Together with his wife, who handled the decor, Richards transformed the century-old waterfront spot in the charming seaside town of St. Mawes into a contemporary retreat that’s proving itself more than fit for the couple’s high-flying friends and sophisticated guests. From $310/night; idlerocks.com

Idle Rocks, Cornwall

With just 20 rooms, along with a light-filled bar, a local seafood-centric restaurant, a cozy sitting room, and a children’s play area, the Idle Rocks feels as much like a home as a hotel. Karen Richards designed each space individually and eclectically, combining antiques with modern artifacts and whitewashed woods with pastel-hued accents inspired by the Cornish coastline. (The hotel is beachfront, and the soothing sound of the sea can be heard through open windows.) Take note: Next summer, the Richardses will debut their redo of the nearby historic St Mawes Hotel.

Hôtel du Continent, Paris

Those wondering why they should stay at Paris’s newly renovated Hôtel du Continent need only think about the ladies of Absolutely Fabulous, who were often wont to enthuse, “Lacroix sweetie…it’s a Lacroix!” That would be fashion designer Christian Lacroix, of course, whose exuberant creative hand is behind the world-spanning decor here. Set amid the shops of tony rue de Mont Thabor in the heart of the 1st arrondissement, each of the 25-room property’s floors exudes the aesthetic of a different continent, while the ground-level lobby and breakfast room provide a riotous pastiche of them all. From $260/night; hotelcontinent.com

Hôtel du Continent, Paris

With an eye more playfully whimsical than scientifically exacting, Lacroix seems to have created Europe (floor 2) from a fantasy of an 18th-century garden; Oceania (floor 4) takes inspiration from a colonial terrace in the South Pacific, with bamboo-trellis wallpaper and leaf-print textiles; and Africa (floor 6) uses zebra-print upholstery and antique maps in ways that don’t succumb to kitsch. Book a weeklong stay and globe-trot to your heart’s content.

Vault Karaköy, Istanbul

The latest Istanbul arrival from the cool and creative folks behind the city’s hip House Hotel Collection, Vault Karaköy opened in March in a nine-story 19th-century former bank building (and adjacent ex-community center) within which its 63 rooms, rooftop restaurant and bar, and wine cellar—in the old vault itself—reside. The hotel sits not far from the cosmopolitan Beyoğlu and historic Sultanahmet neighborhoods, in the rising waterfront district of Karaköy, where grit is giving way to galleries. In keeping with that transformation, the hotel boasts impressive collections of modern artwork and culture-focused books, and an in-house curator organizes culturally minded exhibits and events. From $259/night; thehousehotel.com

Vault Karaköy, Istanbul

Vault Karaköy____takes not only its name but also its aesthetic inspiration from its previous incarnation as a financial institution. Han Tümertekin, a winner of the prestigious Aga Khan Award for Architecture, preserved original neo-Renaissance elements like mosaic-tile floors, marble columns, and iron grille-work, while decorator Sinan Kafadar incorporated a sense of wealth into the cozy rooms with luxe appointments including Carrara marble bathrooms, leather-edged upholstered headboards, and hand-painted ceilings.

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